Thomas Arne
Thomas Arne | |
---|---|
Born | Thomas Augustine Arne 12 March 1710 Covent Garden, London, England |
Died | 5 March 1778 London, England | (aged 67)
Education | Eton College |
Thomas Augustine Arne (/ɑːrn/; 12 March 1710 – 5 March 1778) was an English composer. He is best known for his patriotic song "Rule, Britannia!" and the song "A-Hunting We Will Go", the latter composed for a 1777 production of The Beggar's Opera, which has since become popular as a folk song and a nursery rhyme.[1] Arne was a leading British theatre composer of the 18th century, working at the West End's Drury Lane and Covent Garden. He wrote many operatic entertainments for the London theatres and pleasure gardens, as well as concertos, sinfonias, and sonatas.[2]
Early life
Arne was born on 12 March 1710 in
Arne's father and grandfather were both
Arne was so keen on music that he smuggled a
Upon leaving school, Arne was articled to a solicitor for three years. However, Arne's father discovered his son leading a group of musicians at what was probably one of Festing's musical gatherings. Following this disclosure of his son's real interest and talent, he was persuaded (again probably by Festing) to allow the young Arne to give up his legal career and to pursue music as a living.
Musical career
Between 1733 and 1776, Arne wrote music for about 90 stage works, including plays,
Arne was a Freemason[5] and active in the organization, which has long been centred in the Covent Garden area of London, where Arne lived for many years. Like Mozart, who also lived in the 1700s, Arne lived before the Catholic hierarchy had banned membership in the Lodges in all countries.
On 15 March 1737,
In 1741, Arne filed a complaint in Chancery pertaining to a breach of musical copyright and claimed that some of his theatrical songs had been printed and sold by Henry Roberts and John Johnson, the London booksellers and music distributors. The matter was settled out of court. Arne was one of the first composers to have appealed to the law over copyright issues.[7]
In 1742 Arne went with his wife to Dublin, where he remained two years and produced his oratorio The Death of Abel, of which only the melody known as the Hymn of Eve survives, and some stage works; he also gave a number of successful concerts. Audiences of the day were exacting, and composers had to try to maintain their attention with ever more inventive means. An advertisement in a Dublin newspaper for one of Arne's performances read that he "...intend(ed) between the Acts of his Serenatas, Operas, and other Musical Performances, to intermix Comic Interludes... intended to give Relief to that grave Attention, necessary to be kept up in Serious Performances".[8] On his return to London in 1744 he was engaged as leader of the band at Drury Lane theatre, and the following year as composer at Vauxhall Gardens.[9]
In 1750, after an argument with
Later life
During the 1760s Arne transferred his services to
In 1769 Arne composed the song Soft Flowing Avon, with lyrics by Garrick, for the Shakespeare Jubilee held by Garrick in Stratford-upon-Avon to commemorate the life of William Shakespeare. In 1773, in a performance of Judith Arne introduced women's voices into the choruses for the first time.[9]
In 1777, shortly before his death, Arne and his wife were reconciled. They had one son, Michael Arne, who was also a composer. Arne is buried at St Paul's, Covent Garden, London. A blue plaque, unveiled in 1988, commemorates Arne at 31 King Street in Covent Garden.[14][15]
Arne is considered one of 18th-century Britain's greatest theatrical composers. He is best remembered for his patriotic song "
See also
References
- ^ Sexuality in Eighteenth-century Britain. Manchester University Press. 1982. p. 250.
- )
- ^ Plaque #233 on Open Plaques
- ^ a b Thomas and Sally, or The Sailor's Return, opera ...: Information and Much More from Answers.com
- ^ Website reference Archived 10 May 2007 at the Wayback Machine at the United Grand Lodge of England.
- ^ "IHGS – Family History: Music, the Arne Family Tradition, 1710–1804 by Gladys Carson". Archived from the original on 15 October 2007. Retrieved 5 January 2008.
- ^ Arne, Handel, Walsh, and Music as Intellectual Property: Two Eighteenth-Century Lawsuits: Ronald J. Rabin and Steven Zohn, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Vol. 120, No. 1 (1995), pp. 112–145
- ISBN 1-84046-679-0.
- ^ a b c d public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Arne, Thomas Augustine". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 628–629. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Artaxerxes Archived 7 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 6th Edition. Edited by Margaret Drabble, Oxford University Press, 2000 Pp 41
- ^ "Artaxerxes – Royal Opera House". Archived from the original on 7 October 2009. Retrieved 1 October 2009.
- ^ Artaxerxes: the opera that time forgot | Music | The Guardian
- ^ "ARNE, THOMAS (1710–1778)". English Heritage. Retrieved 18 August 2012.
- ^ "THOMAS ARNE, London, England" at flickr.com
Sources
- McVeigh, Simon. Concert Life in London from Mozart to Haydn. Cambridge University Press, 1993 (2006 reprint).
- Pink, Andrew. 'Thomas Arne (1710–78)' in Le Monde maçonnique des Lumières (Europe-Amériques) Dictionnaire prosopographique. Charles Porset and Cécile Révauger (eds) Paris: Editions Champion, 2013. ISBN 978-2-7453-2496-2
External links
- Family History Page by a descendant of Arne
- Thomas Augustine Arne on the Classical Composers Database
- Works by Thomas Arne in the University of North Texas Virtual Rare Book Room
Sheet music
- Free scores by Thomas Arne at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- The Mutopia Project has compositions by Thomas Arne
- Free scores by Thomas Arne in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)